6 Steps To Raise Financially Responsible Children: Step 3

Long-Term Goals

Once your child has successfully achieved a short-term goal she is ready for a long-term goal. Long-term goals are much harder to achieve because of the length of time typically needed to reach them. Children’s long-term goals typically fall in the 1-5 year range. Adults long-term goals can stretch from 5-25 years. Examples of children’s long-term goals might include:

Buying a mountain bike.

Buying a car.

Going to college.

Taking a trip to Europe.

Because of the nature of long-term goals it is important to keep your child motivated to obtain them. Setting up a long-term goal savings plan is a great way to help your child achieve their goal sooner. For every dollar she adds to her long-term goal piggy bank (or savings account) you can add a dollar. This will help your child achieve her goal in a reasonable amount of time given the amount of money she usually receives.

Long-term goal setting can be a fun and interactive process. You can set aside an afternoon for the whole family to write down their long-term goals on a sheet of paper and discuss them. Then you can gather some old magazines so that each family member can cut out photos in order to make a collage that represents their long-term goal. Once everyone is finished you can hang the collages on the refrigerator or anywhere the family can see them frequently. You can also create a tally chart to show each month the progress that the family member has made to achieve their long-term goal.